


Try On

by easystreets



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Clothing, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Multi, Non-Denominational Pajamas, light up sneakers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:27:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24620824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/easystreets/pseuds/easystreets
Summary: Written for the prompt: Annie does fashion shows for the boys when she gets home from the mall.
Relationships: Troy Barnes & Annie Edison & Abed Nadir
Comments: 18
Kudos: 44





	Try On

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lethargicawe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lethargicawe/gifts).



> Okay, this did devolve from the original prompt. Hopefully for the better! Anyways, enjoy!

“How’s this?” Annie asks, twirling in a denim skirt.

Abed swivels around in his chair and stares at her, starting at the ankles, working his way up, staring at the seams, the distress of the fabric, even the hemming. If it were any other guy, Annie thinks, she’d kill him.

But, it’s Abed. “I like it. I just don’t know where you’d wear it.” Abed means being honest even when it goes past societal conventions. When Annie wants someone’s genuine opinion, no platitudes about being beautiful the way she is, she goes to Abed.

“Are you still getting that red shirt?” Abed frowns at the crop top she’d bought from Urban Outfitters, folded neatly in the bag. “Because if you do, you’re going to look like the type of people Britta follows on Instagram.”

Annie smiles, taking off the skirt and finding the receipt for it. One of these days, she’ll have to drag Abed to the mall so that he can give his opinions in person. It’d be a lot cheaper, and he has an uncanny ability to find what looks good on Annie. For someone who’s wardrobe consists of cardigans and graphic t-shirts, he has good taste. Or he just knows Annie really well.

Either way, when they all go out to dinner with their Dungeons and Dragons group, Annie gets the most compliments. She’s wearing her hair curly, the way it naturally goes, and a jean jacket that Abed insisted on.

“Here,” he says, at the end of the night, handing her a pin, “you looked good. It’s for your jacket.”

(Annie wears the jacket every week, tugging it tight around her shoulders whenever the Greendale A.C kicks in. The Inspector Spacetime pin is always there, sometimes stabbing into her, a reminder.)

* * *

Troy needs new running shoes, and Annie lost her pair of heels in the move to the apartment, so on a Sunday morning, they head to the shoe store.

“I wish they made light-up shoes in adult sizes,” Troy complains, a pile of shoe boxes surrounding him. “The world would probably be a better place.”

“I wonder if we could make our own,” Annie muses.

The idea isn't really meant to go anywhere, but Troy's eyes light up, and after purchasing two plain pairs of sneakers, they’re off to a hardware store.

“Lemme get this straight,” the hardware store guy says at the counter. “You want to run an electrical circuit through sneakers?”

“Yeah,” says Troy, holding a box of the tiniest bulbs he could find.

“Yeah,” says Annie, on the defensive. She clutches her ten-pack of glitter glue closer. “What about it?”

“Nothing,” says the hardware store guy after a deep breath. “I just hope you’ve bothered to read our return policy.”

They skip home together, and Troy spends the entire afternoon at the kitchen table. He somehow produces safety glasses and what looks like a scalpel. Annie doesn’t question it, just starts planning their future custom glitter light-up shoes for adults business. When Troy’s done, they’re pretty great. Sure, sometimes glass crunches under her when a bulb breaks, and Annie’s sure she’s gotten a mild electrical shock from them once or twice. But they’re the only pair of homemade light up shoes in the world, and when Annie sees them on the shoerack, with their names written on them in tangerine-coloured sparkly cursive, she can’t help but smile and try not to wince at the glass shards stuck in her feet. 

* * *

“Pajamas!” Abed shouts one day, uncharacteristically loud, and that’s when Annie knows they’re here: The Pajamas they ordered online, in a big cardboard box.

They all slip into various corners of the apartment to try them on, and inevitably circle back, half-dressed, into the living room for help with buttons or zippers.

“I am never gonna take this off,” says Troy. The pajamas are onesies, green-striped ones that, while non-denominational enough, still fill their hearts with a generalized sort of joy.

“I mean, I physically can’t,” Abed says, absently smiling at their reflection.

“We should take a photo,” Annie suggests. Moments like these, she wants to remember.

Her camera has a timer, so she flicks it on, and they all fall back into the pillow fort. Abed is on Annie’s left, his hand around her shoulder like he’s trying to be Don Draper, except Annie knows he’s not because he’s smiling his Abed smile, soft and gentle. Troy is squished into her on her right, his hands somehow colliding into Abed’s, wrapped tight around Annie like a bow on a present.

“3...2...1!” The boys say, squeezing into her, “Annie sandwich!”

It’s ridiculous, but so funny that Annie can’t stop laughing; falls onto Abed and nearly knocks the blanket fort over. They spend an hour laying there, their bodies intersecting, discussing seasonal pajamas and whether or not onesies are really for babies. In the end, Annie means to get up, and Troy and Abed probably should go to their bunk-beds, but when Troy gets up, it’s only to flick off the light and grab a handful of blankets before diving back on the floor.

“Goodnight, Annie Sandwhich,” Abed whispers, right before she falls asleep, and they all burst into a fit of giggles. It takes them three tries to finally go to bed without any use of the S-word or laughter, and when Annie finally does fall asleep, it’s with the comfortable weight of her head on Abed’s shoulder; Troy’s hand around her wrist, and she thinks that maybe these pajamas really are the best idea ever.

**Author's Note:**

> If you know what TV show the "I mean, I physically can't," line is from, you are awesome. Thank you for the prompt!


End file.
